British bike builder Triumph has been slowly drip-feeding press information on its battery-powered electric road bike project over the past 18 months or so. And it’s now released the final results, alongside some stirring video footage and imagery of the TE-1 being ridden round Oulton Park and run on a dyno.
The raw numbers released are encouraging for fans of electric bikes: a peak power output of 175bhp, kerb mass of 220kg, range of 100 miles, and a 0-80% charge time of just 20 minutes, using DC fast charging from the car world. The 80-100% charge time will be a fair bit longer though, and there’s no word on what the likely price point might be.
The TE-1 programme was designed to help the firm develop the new technologies needed for an all-electric powertrain, rather than being a straight route to a production bike. So there was a lot of focus on mundane-but-essential stuff like throttle mapping, regenerative braking strategies, battery management and producing a chassis that works with the very different characteristics of an electric drivetrain.
Having said that, the final prototype looks remarkably close to a showroom-ready machine – and Triumph has also addressed one big criticism of EVs; the lack of sound. The Hinckley engineers designed in a helical cut primary drive gearset, which gives a satisfyingly high-tech whine as the bike accelerates. Will we be hearing that whine on a production electric Triumph any time soon? The smart money seems to be on an announcement on that at some point next year.